


A Start

by widowbitesandhearingaids



Category: Preacher (TV)
Genre: Cassidy deserves better, Emily deserves better, Fix-It, M/M, They all do tbh, jesse is an asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 19:51:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7587634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/widowbitesandhearingaids/pseuds/widowbitesandhearingaids
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fix it fic for Preacher episode 9, Finish the Song, because my baby Cassidy deserves better than that half-assed apology</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Start

Cassidy was still burning. The fire had been put out days ago, but his whole body was riddled with open sores that oozed pus and blood if he so much as twitched.

Someone – Cassidy might have known her name once but he couldn’t remember it now – was trying to feed him but it wasn’t enough. Dogs and rabbits and Guinea pigs, they weren’t enough, they didn’t have enough blood in them. He was hungry; he was hurting; and nothing they were feeding him was taking the edge off. He could barely speak to cry out for blood, and even then his voice was a ragged approximation of its former Irish lilt.

Then Someone changed. Gone went the hard edges, the jagged words and sharp fists. Regret went with them and part of him was happy for the change. The new Someone was softer. Nettled and churlish but still softer. Gentler, somehow. Both Someones were tough as nails, no matter how they looked on the outside.

“Please, I’m hungry!” he rasped as loud as he could manage. The new Someone, who he associated with endearingly rolled eyes and muttered remarks, had already fed him but he was still _hungry_.

“Don’t worry,” she promised through the door. Smart. Cassidy liked this Someone – he liked them both – he didn’t want to eat them. He wanted to eat some _thing_ , not Someone. Either of them. Cassidy could hear her voice again, speaking to another person, and she sounded panicked. He wondered why but the horrible, hollow feeling in his stomach didn’t leave a lot of room for contemplation.

Then the door opened and Cassidy lost what was left of his damn mind. The world blurred into a haze of violence and blood. Absently, he could hear something screaming – a man, maybe? – but it was overshadowed by the relief of hot blood sluicing down his throat and pooling in his belly. Finally, Cassidy came to and shoved away the body he recognized as the mayor. Unpleasant bastard, he had to say, always sniffing at Emily’s heels. Emily, his second Someone.

“Cassidy?” she whispered.

“Don’t come in here,” Cass croaked. He was himself again, but he still looked right monstrous. He guessed it made sense considering he was a soulless bloodsucker, not that he was much to look at before. Still, he supposed his human shell was better than this. Bloody hell, anything was better than this.

“Are you…are you hungry?” Emily stammered. Tulip must’ve told her the truth about him. Where was Tulip anyhow? She was the one who’d been feeding him since Jesse put him out. Jesse. The thought of the preacher made bile rise in Cassidy’s throat and anger lodged behind his heart.

“Yes,” Cassidy said simply. “Did you feed me yer boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Emily said primly. Cassidy took that as a yes.

“Didn’t know yeh had it in you.”

“Didn’t know you were a vampire.”

“Well these devilish good looks come wit’a price. Yeh don’ get t’be this handsome for free.”

“Are you going to be okay?” Cass almost smiled at that. Almost. He always knew she liked him, deep down. _Very_ deep down.

“I’ll be alrigh’ soon enough, don’ worry about me. You got kids to mind.”

“You’ll be okay if I go?”

“I won’ go mad and eat the neighbors, if that’s what yer worried about.”

“I’ll come back and check on you later.” Emily paused. “And Cassidy? I’m glad you’re okay.” He could hear her footsteps retreat and then silence. Despite what he told her to the contrary, he really wasn’t all right. He was hurting and hungry and probably looked like holy death. Curled in the corner where the sunlight couldn’t touch him, Cassidy felt more like a wounded animal than a man.

“Cass?” The anger behind his heart bloomed into something feral and ugly and Cassidy just barely tamped it down before it could overtake him completely.

“You should go, preacher,” Cassidy growled. “It’s not safe fer you here.”

“You killed the mayor,” Jesse said, obviously seeing the drained, broken body on the bedroom floor.

“I’ll kill you too!” Cassidy snarled, his whole body spasming as he jerked towards the preacher. His rage was a physical thing, filling every cell in his body. “You bloody deserve it.”

“Cassidy – ”

“You _let me burn_ , padre!”

“I put you out,” Jesse said, using the same tone he used with ornery parishioners, not friends he hesitated before saving.

“You waited. You waited and watched! Do you know what it’s been like? I’ve been dying for over a week.” Dying again. Technically Cassidy was already dead and this was the closest he’d ever come to simply not existing anymore.

“I’ve been – ” Jesse started but Cassidy cut him off again. He wasn’t interested in sanctimonious excuses.

“Rattling around with that butcher motherfucker? Defending yer dad’s church that you don’ really give a single damn about? And while you’ve been playin’ vigilante, Tulip’s been trying to keep me alive. Where were you, Jesse? Where were you?”

“Quincannon, he – ”

“Called you out on your holier-than-thou bullshite? S’about time someone did that. You were doin’ what you always do: Talking out yer arse and leaving everyone else to shovel up the shite. D’ you know how many times I coulda killed Tulip? Or Emily? How many times I wanted to?”

“I put you out as fast as I could,” Jesse said softly. Still making excuses, always making _bloody_ excuses. “You kind of took me by surprise, Cass.”

“Surprise?” Cassidy repeated, hating that fucking nickname and how, even when he was so angry it felt like his skin might combust again, it still made him weak in the knees. “You know what was a bleedin’ surprise? That you’re such a fuckin’ _wanker_ that it took Tulip screamin’ bloody murder to get you to move your arse? What if she hadn’t heard me, huh? What then?”

Jesse, for once, didn’t seem to have an answer.

“I woulda died is what. An’ gone straight to Hell, like arsefaced Eugene.”

“I’m gonna get him back, Cass.”

“ _Don’t_ call me that – yer gonna do what now?” Against his will, some of the anger dissipated to make room for curiosity. “How do you plan on doing that?”

“I’m going bring God to Annville.”

“You are off your head, padre.” Bring down God? Assuming that He existed at all, that seemed like a tall order even with Genesis on their side. _His_ side, Cassidy forced himself to correct mentally. He and the preacher weren’t anything, not anymore. Not even when some part of him still wished that they were. _You bloody sap, Proinsias Cassidy, no wonder he’s got you wrapped around his finger._

“I’m going to bring God to church on Sunday and then I’m going to get him to bring Eugene out of Hell. You were right, Cass – Cassidy. I need to do right by that kid.” Jesse reached out as if to touch Cassidy’s shoulder and stopped himself. Cassidy was grateful and made sure his face didn’t show it.

“How?”

“I, eh, I haven’t really gotten there,” Jesse admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I might have an idea,” Cassidy said in spite of himself. Jesse’s eyes snapped to him and Cass couldn’t help the way his heart jumped. Blood hell he really was in deep. “On one condition. Three, actually.”

“And they are?”

“Yeh get Arseface out first. If y’do manage to contact the big feller in the sky, t’at is.”

“Deal. What else?”

“Yeh apologize t’ Tulip and Emily and swear on yer dad’s grave that you’ll stop treatin’ em like shite.”

“I don’t – ”

“Yes, yeh do.”

“Fine, yes, I swear.”

“Good,” Cassidy said, nodding before he dug the angels’ phone out from under a pile of clothes and body parts on the floor. He’d nicked it after the fiasco at Sundowner. It’d seemed like the right thing to do at the time and he couldn’t help but be curious. A direct like to Heaven, that was some heavy shite. “It’s broke as far as I can tell, but here’s your mobile to God, I suppose.” Jesse reached for the phone, a hungry look in his eyes that Cassidy recognized, before slowly retracting his hand.

“That’ll keep,” he said, dark gaze taking in the demolished room. “I’ve got till Sunday. How ‘bout we get you cleaned up, maybe get you something else to eat, and put this place to rights. Bury that body, too.” Cassidy nodded after a single, hesitant moment. He didn’t quite trust this change of heart but he wasn’t willing to turn Jesse away either.

“This don’ make us square, padre,” Cassidy said as firmly as he could manage. “Not by a long shot.” It was a start, though. It was a start.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, kudos and comments make my world go round
> 
> For more preacher, marvel, and other shenanigans, hmu on [ Tumblr!](http://ballerinawidow.tumblr.com/)


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